I saw this recipe posted on the The Family Kitchen and I thought it was the cutest thing.  I was also happy to see something heathly with a Halloween theme.  I sat with my kids and we had so much fun making these.  I used the sharp knife to cut into the sweet potato pumpkins and they used a two pronged fork to pop out  the shapes.  It was definitely time consuming but the result is super cute.  I would suggest maybe using one potato to make jack-o-lanterns and then just make plain "faceless" pumpkins out of the second potato to help speed up the process.

Ingredients:

2 very large sweet potatoes
2 tablespoons olive oil
3/4 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon onion powder
1/8 teaspoon cinnamon
1/8 teaspoon cayenne

Preparation:

Prehat oven to 400 degrees F.  Choose sweet potatoes that are round and fat and are fairly even all around.  Peel the skin from both sweet potatoes. Slice the tip ends from the sweet potato, leaving the thickest part of the middle. Use a sharp knife to cut a small “V” shape in the center of the sweet potato. Slice the sweet potato into 1/8″ thin slices. Use a small, sharp knife to “carve” jack-o-lantern faces into each sweet potato slice. Put "jack-o-lanterns", olive oil and spices in plastic ziploc bag.  Place the sweet potato fries on a cookie sheet and bake in an oven preheated to 400 degrees for 20-22 minutes, or until barely golden brown around the edges.

Carve "v" shape arcross the  top of your sweet potato

Slice 1/8" thick to make little pumpkin shapes

With a sharp paring knife cut out a Jack-O-Lantern face on each pumpkin slice

Toss in a bag with oil and spices and lay flat on a greased cookie sheet

Bake at 400 degrees F for about 20 minutes until just starting to get golden brown on edges

Linked to Strut your Stuff Saturday

Linked to Seasonal Inspiration by Crumbs and Chaos

Linked to Made it on Monday by Lark's Country Heart

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I saw these cookies on The Sweet Adventures of Sugarbelle and I just thought they were so cute.  I was dying to make them.  I also loved reading her information about this recipe because it is a "flawed" recipe.  You are supposed to color 1/3 of the dough yellow, 1/3 orange and leave the other 1/3 uncolored or white.  The problem with this is that when you slice them into the triangles (see pictures at bottom of post) you would end up with every other cookie with a white tip and yellow bottom and every other cookie with a yellow tip and a white bottom.  Candy Corns always have yellow on the bottom, orange in the middle and white on the top.  So I thought it was a great idea to fix this problem by not dying the dough yellow at all, having top and bottom uncolored and the middle orange and then after they are baked, dipped the bottoms in melted yellow chocolate.  Genius!  Either way these are a super cute Halloween Treat!  Also these cookies are not overly sweet so having the added sweetness of the white chocolate is very yummy!

 

Ingredients:

2 sticks of butter, softened

1 cup confectioners sugar

1 egg

1 tablespoon vanilla

1 tablespoon milk

1/4 teaspoon salt

3 cups all-purpose flour

1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1-2 cups of Yellow melting chocolate

 

Preparation:

Cream together sugar and butter. Add egg, vanilla, and milk. Whip until light and fluffy. Sift together flour, baking soda, and salt and add slowly to the wet ingredients until well incorporated. When the dough is formed, remove it from the bowl, and divide it into thirds. Tint one third of the dough orange (I used Wilton gel coloring) and leave the other two-thirds uncolored.

Afterward, line a 9×5 loaf pan with plastic wrap.(I had either a 8 1/2 x 4 1/2 or a 9 1/2 x 5 1/2 loaf pan.  I opted for the 8 1/2 x 4 1/2 and it worked out perfectly)  Press one third of the white dough into a flat layer on the bottom. Next, add the orange dough on top creating the second layer. Finally, use the last of the white dough to make layer three. Cover the top with the overhanging plastic wrap, and chill, preferably overnight. Slice into “candy corns” (pictures below) and bake at 375 for 7-10 minutes.

Melt about 1-2 cups of yellow Candy Melts in the microwave.  Heat on high for 30 second intervals stirring inbetween until chocolate is melted and smooth.  I didn't have yellow candy melts so I use white chocolate chips and yellow food coloring.  You have to be very careful if you choose to do this because if the chocolate isn't at the exact right temperature then it will seize up when you add the food coloring.  The chocolate has to be at exactly 110 degrees on a candy thermometer before you can add the coloring.  It's actually not very easy.  I seized up the first two batches of chocolate that I used.  I found if you add a few capfuls of vegetable oil in the chocolate before the food coloring this helps to temper the chocolate.  I also don't think I got the right color doing it this way.  The yellow Candy Melts would've looked much better.  Anyway, after you have melted yellow chocolate dip the bottoms of each cookie into the chocolate then lay on a lined cookie sheet to harden.

1st layer white, 2nd layer orange

3rd layer white

Fold plastic wrap over top of dough and chill overnight

Slice 1/4 inch strips of dough

Then cut triangles but alternating between "v" and upside down "v" shapes

Place on ungreased cookie sheet and bake for about 10 minutes at 350 degrees F.

Melt yellow chocolate and dip the bottoms of each cooled cookie

Let chocolate harden on a cookie sheet (I put mine in the refrigerator to speed up the process

Linked to Crazy Sweet Tuesday

Linked to Sweet Treats Thursday

Linked to Sweet Tooth Friday

Linked to Sweets for Saturday

Linked to Seasonal Inspiration by Crumbs and Chaos

Linked to Cast Party Wednesday

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Happy Halloween! I used to think Halloween was only on October 31. But here, when I celebrated it for the first time, we started on October 29! And we still have two other Halloween parties after that day. So it means we have three Halloween parties!
At first, I didn't really like the idea about Halloween because I am a coward person. I am afraid of darkness, I dare not watch horror movies, I
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